Standing Out In the Crowd

By Bill Leake & Jennifer Gooding

Think crowdfunding is just for the quintessential bootstrapped entrepreneur struggling to scrape enough cash together to get out of prototype phase? Think again. Particularly with the recent passage of Title III of the JOBS Act, more and more well-established brands and businesses are considering crowdfunding campaigns as an alternative equity raise, for market validation, and effective, far-reaching publicity.

After running (for others) many of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns in Texas and beyond, and in the throes of yet another six figure fundraising success – a Kickstarter (http://kck.st/1fE56dp) campaign ending in mid-March – proves if you have a desirable product and promote it strategically, Crowdfunding works. Here’s how to optimize a crowdfunding campaign for success.

First, determine which platform is best. There are now more than 450 (!) crowdfunding platforms available, many niche to specific industries, some just for equity-based campaigns, and most for rewards-based (that simply means there’s a product received in return for the money put in) campaigns. A multitude of articles have been written on which platform is best, but it’s undisputed that rewards-based Kickstarter is far and away the Goliath.

Once the platform is chosen, here is a quick laundry list of both unusual and steadfast crowdfunding best practices compiled from our experience across multiple crowdfunding campaigns on various platforms, studying what works and what doesn’t on hundreds of others. Applied together, these tactics and approaches should more than triple the chances of success:

Raise money ahead of time. Wait. What? Isn’t crowdfunding about raising money? Well, yes, but the old adage, “It’s easier to raise money when you don’t need it,” applies here too. Being able to focus on Kickstarter, for example, as a platform for pre-sales, market validation, feedback, buzz creation, and early adopter persona group identification makes the platform hugely useful beyond just the fundraising. If the campaign is not laboring under the pressure of, “We must raise this money or the product won’t actually launch,” it’s possible to be a lot more creative about the campaign by engaging the best talent and resources to help. That’s why many of the most successful campaigns had funding BEFORE they launched, allowing them to do the campaign properly, rather than on a wing and a prayer. Granted, not everyone can do this, but if it’s possible, it will help.

Invest in a top notch-video experience. Whether spending $2k, $10k, or $20k, make the video a compelling, high quality, conversion focused experience. Since practically everyone considering the campaign will watch the video before making a commitment, this is the first, best, and pretty much must-do-right shot at making the case for backing.

Reverse engineer at least ten (preferably more) other campaigns on the platform. Look carefully at them, and try to understand what happened. Did they work? Why, or why not? What goal amounts did they set, what was their reward structure, cost? Who tweeted them and otherwise mentioned them on the web and in social networks?

Build out a media list, targeted bloggers, and other desired influencers BEFORE launching. If possible, have samples made in advance to ship to media and other review outlets. Tactical hint: For bloggers, once finding the relevant writers in the space, use Rapportive, a Gmail browser plugin, to locate just about anyone’s email in the world. Connect on social networks to hunt down more emails and other contact information. Put this all in a master contact spreadsheet and pre-write a very short email pitch, focused on a “hook,” while pitching them why it’s of value.

Spend significant time, ahead of time, laying out the campaign. Pay special attention to tiering the rewards. Have a few very low-dollar rewards that are nearly “no-cost” to support but that can drive up the backer count, and potentially provide something of minor value or interest to these backers. Have a progressively more expensive set of rewards, most of them in the middle range, actually being versions or bundles of the product. Have a couple of almost ridiculously high cost rewards at the top of the tiers. Consider using rewards as market research and be willing to change rewards on the fly during a campaign based on what’s being learned. Plan for success and consider before launching what the first and second set of “stretch goals” might be, so nobody is caught flat footed if the campaign takes off faster than expected.

Have at least 15 percent (preferably 25 percent) of the total goal available in “friends and family” dollars. This will guarantee either a fast start or “top off” money to ensure hitting the goal and preferably both, if possible. Here’s where having those high end goal categories are helpful. Money that goes in early helps accelerate the overall campaign to a different trajectory. Aim to hit the funding goal the first week of the campaign, carrying the momentum throughout, and then far surpassing it. Psychology predicts, and Kickstarter behavior confirms, that humans like to back winners. Keep in mind any “friendly” money committed can actually be withdrawn again before the campaign ends, if the goal has been hit, which leads to . . .

Engage, engage, engage, during the campaign. Backers don’t just want to purchase a product, they are looking to be part of something bigger and they are looking for an experience. Give it to them and keep communicating with them, or they may pull their money out before the project is over. After the campaign is over, keep updating backers on progress, including the delivery date. In the crowdfunding space, the delivery date is a huge differentiator – if the product can be delivered fairly quickly, the campaign will stay way ahead of the curve.

Have a website auto-redirecting to Kickstarter (or other crowdfunding platform the campaign is on) the sharing link given out to press, influencers, and personal network. Virtually all organizations conducting campaigns massively fail at this one and end up building all sorts of links and SEO value to a Kickstarter page, but none to a property they own, control, and manage; thus, forgoing a massive opportunity to use the buzz and excitement around the launch and propelling Google success for years ahead. This is potentially huge, but rarely done right.

Amplify any journalist / blogger / other credible earned media “wins” in the campaign. If there is a big win, put some funds behind media amplification channels like Outbrain and Disqus to keep those fires burning hotly through the duration of the campaign.

Add some professional help to the mix. Anyone can do online marketing or PR themselves – having someone on the journey with multiple successes under their belt can tilt the playing field favorably in the right direction. Determine what role the leader of the campaign is going to take – an implementer throughout the process, or more of a consultative with a campaign design role on the front end? Most journalists don’t cover crowdfunding campaigns. This is all the more reason to seek some assistance, even if just through a mostly automated support site like CrowdBuilder. CEOs often hire PR & marketing professionals for enhancing bandwidth more than anything.

No one knows the industry/product/company better than the CEO. Having some help can drive unique angles and get coverage in a notoriously noisy space to free up time and may make the difference between failure and success.

Bill Leake & Jennifer Gooding partnered to run The Right Arm Kickstarter campaign and contributed this article to provide guidance to other CEOs considering crowdfunding.

Bill Leake is Founder & CEO of Apogee Results, one of the leading online marketing firms in Texas with clients in private-equity, venture capital, and publicly-traded firms.

Jennifer Gooding is Principal of Prime-techpr.com, returning millions of dollars of ROI in major media coverage every year for clients, including some of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns in Texas. Both may be reached through LinkedIN.